


All I ever needed in my arms

by Arwen88



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s01e07 The Breaking Point, Fluff, M/M, and the usual violence there, but not very descriptive of it, more the emotional shock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 07:46:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19421584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arwen88/pseuds/Arwen88
Summary: He had always had a thing for the quiet ones, for the smart guys that looked softly at the class, smiled at his jokes, and felt like they were there to mother hen everybody else. Luz could remember a couple guys like that from his school days, but all of them paled in comparison to Lipton and Luz had fallen well before the first jump.





	All I ever needed in my arms

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to ThrillingDetectiveTales for beta reading this <3
> 
> Written for the Giugnobaleno challenge of LDF, prompt 19: Kiss

Luz had noticed how attractive Lipton was in the early days of Camp Toccoa, always watching without being noticed, masking the reactions of his body to such strong legs and arms as they ran three miles up and three miles down. Luz had tried to keep his distance at first, hoping the man wouldn’t even notice him, but since Easy Company had jumped to Normandy staying away from each other wasn’t an option anymore, not with their whole world narrowed to the men beside them.

Lipton was a gentle soul, the only person the Easy boys still felt they could hold on to since Winters had started moving up the ranks - unwillingly, they could all see that, and that made them grin a bit in pleasure - and Dike had been posted with them. Sure, there was Bull, but it was clear the platoon leader wasn’t really himself anymore.

So they stuck to Lipton like ducklings. Luz hoped nobody could see how he stayed a little closer than most.

He had always had a thing for the quiet ones, for the smart guys that looked softly at the class, smiled at his jokes, and felt like they were there to mother hen everybody else. Luz could remember a couple guys like that from his school days, but all of them paled in comparison to Lipton and Luz had fallen well before the first jump.

***

In Bastogne there were no heat sources aside for their own bodies and the camp stoves that barely made the food edible and the coffee drinkable.

It was how Luz found himself pressing together with Talbert in their shared foxhole, content to finally fall asleep with a bit of added warmth. At least until Talbert started getting frisky. When Luz found himself elbowing the guy awake, he decided right then and there that if he truly had to endure someone humping him without even buying him dinner first, at least he was going to see if there was any chance to trade for the one guy he would have actually enjoyed getting groped by.

“Mind if I bunk with you?” The question was out even before Luz’ feet hit the bottom of the foxhole, and Lipton raised one eyebrow at him, not really bothered as much as curious.  
Still he didn’t say no, offering a flap of his blanket at Luz to scoot under, pressing closer to his warm body.

“What happened to Talbert?”

“He started dreaming of his wife.” Luz rolled his eyes. “I’m a cuddly guy, but my momma told me to make them buy me dinner first. Or at least a coffee.” He laughed quietly, tempering his words with his usual levity, and relaxed at the smile that tugged at Lipton’s mouth.

Still, he couldn’t help running his mouth.

“Are you going to dream of your wife, Lip?”

The smile fell from Lipton’s face for the first time that Luz could remember, and he hated himself right away, even if he wasn’t really sure what precisely had made the little smile disappear.

“Shit- sorry, didn’t mean to-”

Lipton merely shook his head. “Not what you think. She divorced me,” he explained calmly, ignoring how Luz dropped his jaw at the news.

He couldn’t believe the woman had done such a thing. He barely understood when his friends’ girlfriends left them - collectively thinking their boys were away for far too long probably - while they were stuck there, grasping for any good news from home to remind them there was still something to fight for. But Lipton’s wife? There was something terribly sad in a man as good as him getting dumped.

For the first time in years Luz found himself unable to find the words to say and he cast his eyes down to the frozen ground as he realized that he had contributed to dampening the Sergeant’s mood by reminding him.

“Sorry, Lip.” He started standing up, thinking Lipton might have wanted him to go, but Lipton huffed and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him down once more.

What was even more surprising was how he wound up his arm around Luz’ shoulders.

“Wouldn’t mind a bit of company to tell you the truth,” he admitted softly.

Even in his surprise Luz didn’t need him to repeat himself, the desire to stay by him stronger than ever, and without a word he pressed as close as he could.

If at some point in his sleep he thought he could feel Lipton’s rake his fingers in his hair he said nothing, and soon he was asleep once more.

He started slipping in the NCO’s foxhole more frequently after that - to cheer Lipton up, he would say. Sometimes though it was just to share a bit of warmth and company.

Until the night Luz watched his friends die under the barrage of German artillery.

***

The earth was exploding all around him and Luz had never been more afraid for his life until that moment. Not even Normandy had been like this. When the shells started exploding all around him, throwing him to the ground, taking the air out of his lungs, he thought he was done for, finished. His heart stopped for a moment and he was unable to do anything but stare at his friends waving him towards them. He knew they were screaming at him. He could see it from the way their mouths worked. But he couldn’t move. Suddenly a dread started filling his stomach and Luz clawed at the ground under his hands, trying to force his body to move.

Then a shell fell right into his friends’ foxhole, and he knew there was nothing more of them in the world.

He tried to run, to find another foxhole, his brain screaming at him that he had to move, that he had to survive. Suddenly he saw Lipton waving at him, screaming at him to get over there. He gasped, still shocked, when Lipton grabbed him, wrapped one arm around his waist and dragged him down inside the foxhole where they had spent so much time together.

He screamed at the man that Muck and Penkala had been hit, and he knew he was not mistaken when he thought he felt the hold around him tighten as soon as Lipton understood what he was saying. Trees exploded around them, the exploding shells chilling his blood and making his ears ring. He grabbed the arm around him, holding on as if it was the only thing keeping him whole.

He couldn't stop thinking that his best friends had been lost, one after the other, that if he was to die nobody would have remained that knew him much. He would have been merely a flag returned to his family, a name to be forgotten in a few years.

His heart stopped for a moment when a shell fell on the rim of the foxhole. In the sudden quiet he felt more than heard the hitch in the breath against his ear, and he held Lipton's arm even tighter. He stared unblinkingly at what was clearly a dud, until he managed to let go of Lipton to pick out a cigarette with trembling hands, lighting it without taking his eyes off the very weapon that should have killed them.

Two fingers brushed against his lips, plucking the cigarette from there, and he snapped his head to the side, surprised, his eyebrows rising at seeing Lipton - pale and trembling as much as he was - take a drag off the cigarette. The man was still staring at the dud, and Luz figured it was fair that he would want a cigarette too.

He knew Lipton probably wanted to get out of there, to check on the men, but they had learned to stay in the foxholes in case of another barrage. And there they stayed, Luz practically laying on top of Lipton, both of them smoking with the image of their impending death in front of their eyes.

Luz knew he should have shuffled away, that he couldn't really keep lying all over his ranking officer, but when he tensed, about to move, the arm around him tightened its grip. Luz barely turned his head toward Lipton, enough to see him minutely shake his head.

They didn't speak a word, but in the silence they seemed to form an agreement and Luz didn't try to move anymore, finally aware that that point of contact between them was an anchor for him as much as it was for the other man.

***

They walked together to what had been Muck and Penkala's foxhole. Luz was grateful for Lipton's presence beside him, for the shoulder brushing against his own all the way from foxhole to foxhole. There wasn't much left of his friends and Luz tried without much success to swallow the lump in his throat.

Lipton kept silent beside him, but his hand found its way to Luz' shoulder, squeezing softly, enough to remind him that he wasn't alone, that he was still alive, and Luz barely managed to nod his head.

***

Lipton didn't say a word when that night Luz slipped into his foxhole once more. He didn't ask why Luz was there. Lipton simply raised one flap of his blanket for Luz to slip under and, as soon as Luz was pressed against his side, he wrapped one arm around his shoulders too.

Luz found himself leaning closer to the man than he had ever taken the liberty to try before. But Lipton encouraged him, pulling him even closer, and before Luz knew it he had turned to face him.

Luz fisted both hands in the sergeant’s uniform and pressed his face against Lipton’s shoulder. The way Lipton wrapped his arms around him told him he could, told him Lipton didn't mind in the slightest. It was all Luz could do to not be too loud as his chest was wracked by sobs, his shoulders shuddering even under the tight pressure of Lipton's arms.

Then Lipton did something Luz would have never expected: he started slowly raking his fingers through Luz' hair, a gentle and soothing movement.

"It's alright, George. Nobody would ever think less of you for this. Let it go."

The reassuring voice was everything Luz needed and he nodded his head, his tears wetting the uniform under his face, the broad chest of the man that had held him for hours until they were safe again.

Luz tried desperately to catch his breath, not to think about the shame of crying in front of Lipton like a baby, but a new sob shook him when Lipton gently brushed his lips against the top of his head.

"It's alright, George."

"It's not," he argued with a cracking voice, trying to be quiet enough for the others not to hear him in this state.

He knew very well why they all had to keep it together, why such a display had to be hidden in order for the morale not to drop drastically.

"It will be, at some point. We will get out of here."

Luz sighed, turning his head to press a cheek against Lipton's chest, and Lipton just fixed the blanket over Luz' back and himself before going back to gently petting his hair. Slowly the tears stopped and Luz was able to breathe better. Still he didn't trust himself to let go of the other man. Lipton didn't seem in a hurry to make him move, anyway.

Instead Lipton squeezed his shoulder. "Why don't you stay here for tonight?"

Luz nodded, leaning back just enough to look at him.

Lipton had a concerned look in his eyes, something he was unable or unwilling to mask, but he smiled just a little bit down at Luz and Luz knew then that he would never get over what he felt for that man.

He wasn't sure why his body thought it was a good idea, maybe his brain was simply too drained to be able to think anymore, but Luz found himself pressing closer to Lipton, tilting his head until he was able to brush his lips against the other man's.

He felt the soft rush of air on his skin when Lipton's breath caught at the light kiss, and Luz was ready to back off when Lipton tightened the grip on the hair on the back of his head. Instead of shoving him away, though, Lipton pulled him closer, pressing their lips together once more.

It was all he could do to not moan into the kiss, his whole body wracked by shivers when Lipton licked at the seam of his lips and then pushed past them to kiss him with a passion that Luz had never expected from him.

Luz tugged at him, his grip on the sergeant's uniform so strong his knuckles were white, and somehow moved over him until he had one leg between Lipton's.

There was desperation in their kiss but also a degree of need and longing that Luz could read as if it were written on the walls. They pressed closer, not letting the other go and maybe being a bit more rough than they would have been in different circumstances.

Luz wasn't sure how long they kissed, only that when they broke apart he could feel his whole body flushed with heat and it seemed to be the same for Lipton, judging by his flushed face and fervent eyes.

Then Lipton opened up in a smile meant only for Luz and he could barely breathe anymore.

That night he slept with Lipton in his foxhole, pressed against the other man from toes to chest, feeling a bit more safe at the tight hold of Lipton’s muscular arms around his back. It was all he could ask for, and he hoped it would somehow help him get to the end of the war without losing his mind.


End file.
